chèquesvscliquesConfusable pair

Which to use

“chèques” and “cliques” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,841
“chèques” frequency rank
#28,486
“cliques” frequency rank
39327
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chèques cliques
Definition Pluriel de chèque. Nom par lequel on désignait des sabots de bois dans certaines provinces.

Where the eye mixes chèques and cliques

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
chèques
7 ch
cliques

Why the eye confuses chèques with cliques

A purely visual mix-up. chèques (\ʃɛk\) and cliques (\klik\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39327, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chèques is recorded at frequency rank #10,841, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛk\. cliques is at rank #28,486, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klik\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 39327, this pair ranks #248,830 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chèques vs cliques

Shared letters: ceqsu. Private to "chèques": . Private to "cliques": il.

"chèques" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC  ·  "cliques" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cliquesccliques · cilques · cliqeus · cliqques · cliquess · cliquse · cliuqes · clliques

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chèques" and "cliques" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʃɛk\ versus \klik\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "chèques" or "cliques"?
"chèques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,841 in our French list, against #28,486 for "cliques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "chèques" and "cliques" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chèques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cliques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #248,830 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chèques" and "cliques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "claquée vs cliques". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #248,830 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list